Classic Video Games #3: Mario Kart

Lets now take a look at a series of nintendo racing games that make anybodys day

my next retrospective is a series of nintendo racing games starring everybodys favorite italian; mariothats right, its mario karthere i'll be talking about all seven MK games that came outfrom 1992 to 2011

as usual, the first game to discuss is the one that started it allsuper mario kart on super nintendo entertainment system

i never played this version before, but i do say, it does look pretty impressive, even in 16-bit

some people however don't like this game because of how hard it getsyou know, having to drift and hope to hit your opponents with an item

every racing course in the game is really short, so each one has five laps to drive aroundbecause this is an old game, there were only eight characters to play asand instead of donkey kong and wario, theres donkey kong jr and koopa troopa

theres also no extra mirror mode to unlock, but its understandable since this was the very first mario kart game

thats all i have to say about the SNES mario kart game since i never played it before and i don't know everything about it, but i still think it looks okay to play, even if people say the controls 're difficulthope you people back at 1992 liked this game as well

now we move on to the spring of 1996 where we look at the first 3D mario kart gamemario kart 64 on nintendo 64let me tell you, this was a big step-up of the SNES game

this became much more of a must-have back in the 90sthe 64 game had good characters, courses, and itemsthe vs and battle mode are both good tooand this again had only eight characters, though this time it has donkey kong and wario

it however tends to a bit hard and unfair when you keep playingespecially on higher CCs150cc for example is where all racers move much faster, and two characters might keep getting ahead of you not matter how many times you hit them with itemsthey might even get to the finish line first just when you're about to do so (super mario kart does that too, and i forgot to mention it)and boy does that piss me off

and when you play on mirror mode, thats when it makes things even more complicatedlike when you play on "toads turnpike", all the cars, trucks, and buses start driving right at you, and it makes it really hard not to get hit by themand thats also because of the rather sensitive controlsoh and if you end up with less than third place in a grand prix, you'll feel just as ashamed as donkey kong right hereand i'd feel sorry for you

this game has a bunch of glitches too, but other than that, mario kart 64 was a fantastic racing game for 90s nintendo fans everywhere

and then we have the battle modemy favorite is of course balloon battlei always have a ton of fun popping other racers balloons before they pop all of mineone thing that sucks about that battle is that you lose automatically when all three balloons are gonein mario kart wii, you respawn after all balloons are gone, and it keeps going until the time runs out, but the N64 MK game is one of the retro ones, so apparently the idea of respawning after losing balloons wasn't come up with yet

thats all there is to say about the legendary N64 mario kartit may be frustrating, but it was still a must-have in the 90s

now we move on to the first handheld mario kart game that came in 2001we have mario kart super circuit on gameboy advance

i never played this game before either, but like i said about the SNES game, this looks impressivei however don't like the idea of having those arrows show up when you're about to make a turn, because i know pretty well where and when to steer

this game has some of the same voices and sound effects from the N64 game, and it has all the same eight characters from it

in fact, the arrows that appear remind me of "the simpsons road rage" on GBAthe only difference is the arrows in road rage are actually more helpful, but in super circuit, they seem rather unnecessaryother than that, having a mario kart game on GBA seemed like a good ideasince i never played that either, i don't know a whole lot about it

so lets move on to the badass 2003 tag team mario kartmario kart double dash on nintendo gamecubethat one is indeed twice as fun, especially having a partner driver

the gamecube had to have a mario kart game in the librarythough i never expected this one to have you be able to use two charactersand that means you're able to use two different items

this is the character select screenit had pretty good drivers to choose, and this time theres even more than the older games hadas well as two unlockable duos; toad & toadette and petey piranha & king booalso good players

double dash is really good, but i always have trouble with driftingmostly when racing on rainbow road, i can never stop falling offlike it shows in this image hereif you had all that trouble with steering and drifting, i feel sorry for you too

still i don't think anybody in 2003 could get enough of MK double dashits fun, anticipating, and just damn epictheres no way mario kart games can get any better than that, right?

well lets now take a look at the spring of 2005we got the second handheld mario kart game on nintendo DS

this game went back to have only one character to play as, but other than that, this has pretty cool courses, as well as a choice of playing on retro courses from the older mario kart games, like "N64 banshee boardwalk"

my most favorite is "waluigi pinball"the music and features of that course were all fantasticand im really glad this course came back in "mario kart 7" which i'll be talking about for last

i love "rainbow road" tooall the colors and sparkling sound effects and backgrounds it hasthe one in double dash on the other hand has a big city at night backgroundand the one unlockable character i interest the most was R.O.B the robot who you see in this image as wellthat was an nice idea to have an NES accessory character in a mario kart game, huh?

this game even has an option for decorating a characters kart, and i never found out about that untill much later after i sold my game to gamestop which i regret doingso thats how mario kart DS goesnow why don't we take a look at what the wii whipped up?

the spring of 2008, there came the release of the sixth MK gamemario kart wii was an absolute must

this game actually had more than just karts to drive with

it has motorcycles as welleverybody loves using bikes to race and when you choose peach, daisy, or roselina to race with bikes, they get biker outifts to wear which i find too cool

and wow, is that a lot of characters or what?you even have an option of playing as a mii character you made wearing either a biker outfit or mario/luigi outfit

the wii game has really good courses tooboth wii and retro coursesthose some of which are pretty annoying, like "N64 sherbert land"mostly because of those godforsaken penguins that makes you spin out (they're actually much more annoying in the N64 game)

the game has really fun battle stages tooand i love that in balloon battle you can reappear with new balloons, whereas in the other games, you already lose the battle when all balloons are gone "funky kong stadium" and "chain chomp wheel" are my two favorite stagesin fact, "funky kong stadium" has to be the biggest stage out of all of the ones the wii game has

so that concludes mario kart wiithis game is incredible, especially when you like playing with the wii wheel (which i suck at using, so i always use a gamecube controller)this is it, we're onto the final game

the spring of 2011 came the release of the third handheld and seventh mario kart of the serieswe got mario kart 7 on nintendo 3DSi couldn't get enough of this game either

i declared this game to be the best mario kart i ever goteven though this doesn't have the bikes anymoreit has all the good items, and even has coins to collect like in the SNES game

the 3D effects were good, and you actually have an option of customizing your kartyou pick the kart body, tires, and hang glider

and you gotta love the hang glidersi been really surprised to be seeing those in a racing game

and of course get a load of the new driversi like playing as lakitu because his voice sounds like a "happy tree friends" characteri even posted a youtube video with a playthrough of lakitu and i mentioned about his voicethere 're even three new items; tanooki tail, fire flower, and lucky 7if you can actually be lucky to get lucky 7, you're pretty much on the top of the world

not only do you fly in the air with hang gliders, but you dive and drive underwater as wellnice to see that water doesn't mean you went out of bounds this time

again, it has good retro courses and stages, including ones from the wii gameand it has "waluigi pinball" like i mentioned with mario kart DSthe battles modes 're pretty much the same, except with ways to glide in the sky like in the races yeah, mario kart 7 kicks ass

so thats what i have to say about the entire mario kart seriesthey're really good racing games, even if i haven't played the SNES or GBA versions beforefor those of you nintendo fans who love mario kart, im sure you love every game that came out as wellthus concludes classic video games #3

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